Samsung Innovation Week – Part 1

Worldline has decided to strongly develop its sales through key partnerships and has created the Global Alliances & Partnerships department. This department is focused on developing global partnerships, with potential local deployments. Through these partnerships, we aim at creating new business opportunities, improving our offers and increasing our speed to market.

With Top Partners, such as Samsung, we are joining forces and resources, for a specified period, to achieve a common objective, and the Innovation Week is a perfect example of such a symbiotic partnership that has both global and local business impacts.

Hi, what do you work on at Worldline?

Michel: I am the Sales Director for our entire products and services portfolio in France.

Alexandre: I am the Sales Director for our Merchant Services & Terminals business unit in France.

Armelle: I am in charge of partnerships in France.

When did you join us and what were you doing before?

Michel: I joined Worldline in 1996 a sales engineer. Before that, I spent most of my sales career working for companies specialized in services.

Alexandre: I joined Worldline in 2010 as Sales Director for the retail sector. Before that, like Michel, I worked in companies specialized in services for ten years.

Armelle: I joined the company in 2008. Previously, I worked in sales and marketing for US companies, specializing in direct and indirect sales of computer software.

We were partner of Samsung’s Innovation Week in France; can you tell us more about this project?

Michel: When Samsung contacted us with this opportunity to integrate our solutions in their products for their pop-up store, we immediately recognized its importance for two main reasons. First, this opportunity allowed us to enhance our visibility and to strengthen our partnership with Samsung, signed in 2013. Second, it was the chance to participate in the building of a complete customer experience in tomorrow’s digital world. This enabled us to highlight some of our innovative solutions that solve these new business paradigms in which the physical and the digital combine.

Alexandre: Our BTIC* and trade shows allow us to demonstrate our innovations and our products to our customers in a set context. This partnership provided a complementary way to showcase our expertise in a real-life situation.

Armelle: I would add that, through our participation in this event, we were able to also put the focus on the complementary relationship between Samsung products and our solutions.

What were, in your opinion, the main goals of this event for Samsung and for us?

Armelle: Samsung’s goals were varied: the priority was to highlight their new B2B brand, Samsung Business, but also all their new products such as the Samsung S6 or S6 Edge, as well as their screens and their digital mirror. In addition, Samsung wanted to display their vertical ability and all of their products.

Michel: Indeed, Samsung wanted, through this event, to showcase their products, well-known to end consumers, like their latest smartphones, their tablets or their digital mirror (ed: which can receive advertising) for the B2B market.

Alexandre: On our end, the main goal was to meet with prospects and customers and to present our solutions in a real-life setting in an innovative way, in addition, of course, to the media coverage for our brand in this event.

What did strike each of you the most during this event?

Michel: For me, it was seeing this complete customer journey first hand, rather than in a BTIC, and see how digital can bring added value to physical stores by transforming the consumer shopping experience.

Armelle: Personally, it was a rather magical experience because it allowed me to meet clients in a relaxed atmosphere while being in a real situation.

Do you consider this event a success and what lessons can be learned from it?

Michel: It is still early to really have an overview of the results from this event; however, the initial feedback from Samsung has been very positive.

Armelle: This has already been a success in terms of showcasing our partnership and Samsung shares this view as well.

Alexandre: I think the lesson here is to be able to identify and seize such opportunities.

Thank you for your time today. I will leave you with one final question: we live in a hyper connected digital world and, suddenly, you find yourself stranded on a desert island, which electronic product do you have to have with you?

Alexandre: A photovoltaic satellite phone, with all the features of a smartphone.

Armelle & Michel: The new Samsung virtual reality goggles because they allow you to tele-transport yourself somewhere else than on that desert island.

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